Peace: at a Price
by QueenTatooine
Summary: Miranda was the new hope for the Alliance. It would bring everyone together. Too bad it had that one fatal flaw. From the view point of two early colonists, a world meant for hope and renewal, became one of tragedy and horror. Rating may increase. Pre war


When Miranda was founded it was seen as a new hope, a chance to bring the Rim and Border Worlds under the enlightened rule of the Alliance. Miranda would be a prime example of the wealth and prestige of the Core Worlds. It would have all the technology, all the wealth, and all of the luxuries that made the Core Worlds so much better than the Rim Worlds. Miranda would be everything that gave the Core Worlds the right to reach out and seek to take all else under their rule. Miranda would be a shining example of what made the beliefs and paradigm of the Core citizens so much better than the rest, and it would sit in their very midst. Miranda would make them beg to be ruled by the compassionate and far-reaching Core. Miranda would be their finest achievement, and their finest strategy. So what made it all go wrong?

* * *

Tammy was your average young adult. Recently graduated with her primary degree she was ready and able to go into the work force but, as with many before her, she found that work was difficult to find. Oh sure there were jobs, but they were all low-paying service positions. Tammy wanted more than this; she wanted to do something wonderful with her life; she wanted to make a difference--why else become a nurse? Unfortunately, she hadn't yet been accepted into any of the schools to continue as a doctor, and probably never would, as those who had the money were able to pay to get moved up the list. That wasn't the public reason given for them moving up the list; the public reason had to do with their grades being good, their test scores being well received, their very attitude fitting better with the school. Perhaps she should accept the fact that the best job she would ever have was changing bedpans and giving sponge baths. She would never work in the Emergency room to save lives. She will never be on the front line saving lives from the most insane circumstances, she would just . . . be. 

Tammy sagged down in her chair and began a futile search of the channels for something to distract her from her thoughts. She was interrupted by a knock at the door. It was one of those annoying knocks where the person on the other side was determined to replicate the percussion track of the most annoying the song they could think of. Immediately Tammy knew whom her erstwhile visitor was. Jackey had been her best friend for as long as she could remember, but that friendship would come to an abrupt end if she didn't stop that racket. Tammy turned the remote towards the door and pressed a button. The door immediately slid open and Jackey came striding through the door with the biggest grin on her face.

Jackey was a geologist, and a good one; currently she was working lab work for one of the bigger companies. She was a pretty little thing, and not one you would expect to be the outdoors type. Her blonde hair contrasted nicely with her tanned skin, she was thin and tall and always wore a smile. Looking at her you would never guess that she could hike all day in the worst conditions and never get tired. Tammy really did love having her for a friend.

"I have the best news," Jackey said, striding up to Tammy and taking the remote away. Before Tammy could react to this, Jackey had shut off the vid and sat across from Tammy on the glass coffee table.

"You finally got laid?" Jackey grinned and for a moment Tammy thought she was right; she was in the process of taking a breath to ask for details when Jackey spoke.

"Nope, they are opening a new planet for colonization." Tammy found herself holding a thick folder full of information on this new planet. "It is going to be an industrial and commercial center on the Rim. It will have all the luxuries that we have here, but will also have several areas of mountains and hills." Tammy looked through the information packet as Jackey continued to expound on the wonders of this new planet. "They need everyone they can get. It will be wonderful, the start of something new. So can I sign you up?"

Tammy looked up shocked. Sign up? Leave her family, her job and her home? Leave for the Rim, where people barely live above savagery? Leave everything she knew behind for the unknown dangers of a new world? "I don't know."

"Come on. Think of the opportunity, you can become a doctor, see right there, 'on the job training for medical professionals seeking advancement'," Jackey read directly from one of the brilliantly colored pamphlets, "and here 'accepting all ages and statuses,'" she read from another equally colorful booklet. "We can go to Miranda and make ourselves and this new world something wonderful."

"Jackey, this is the Rim, these aren't the same circumstances as we have here in the Core. People out there are a bit backwards and some say dangerous."

"This isn't to be developed like a rim world though. Look at the city layouts already designed, this world will be built like the core worlds, it may even help the people out there to see what they are missing, help to bring them around. Surely in surroundings like this they wouldn't be too bad." Jackey's enthusiasm was contagious and despite her misgivings, Tammy found herself being drawn in.

"We won't be able to see our families, that is a long trip, and who knows if we will ever come back."

"There are still ways to keep in contact, and--who knows?--maybe once the world becomes a new center, perhaps traffic between there and the core will become more common." Jackey sobered and she looked at her best friend seriously, "It's the chance of a lifetime, but I won't go without you." That clenched it, as Jackey knew it would. Tammy looked down at the packet in her lap and felt her resolve waver. It was something new, it was something amazing; it was the chance of a lifetime.

Finally Tammy looked up from her perusal. "I'll do it, sign me up." Jackey squealed with joy and Tammy smiled in return. This may just have been the best step she could make, to be a founding colonist. Sure it would be difficult, there would be challenges to over come that Tammy could never dream of, but she would have the shaping of a world.

With a new hope for life, Tammy looked down at the information packet and the name of her future, Miranda.

* * *

AN: All right people this is the first chapter of a new story. This will become quite dark and angst-y as one can surmise. I will be taking suggestions from reviews seriously. I've never written a horror and am looking forward to the new challenge. Helpful criticisms welcome.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Serenity, Miranda or any of the concepts developed by Joss Whedon.


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